It shall
publish within one hundred and twenty days of the enactment:-

the
particulars of its organization, functions and duties;

the powers
and duties of its officers and employees;

the
procedure followed in its decision making process, including channels of
supervision and accountability;

the norms
set by it for the discharge of its functions;

the rules,
regulations, instructions, manuals and records used by its employees for
discharging its functions;

a statement
of the categories of the documents held by it or under its
control;

the
particulars of any arrangement that exists for consultation with, or
representation by the members of the public, in relation to the
formulation of policy or implementation thereof;

a statement
of the boards, councils, committees and other bodies consisting of two
or more persons constituted by it. Additionally, information as to
whether the meetings of these are open to the public, or the minutes' of
such meetings are accessible to the public;

a directory
of its officers and employees;

the monthly
remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including
the system of compensation as provided in its regulations;

the budget
allocated to each of its agency, indicating the particulars of all
plans, proposed expenditures and reports on disbursements
made;

the manner
of execution of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and
the details and beneficiaries of such programmes;

particulars
of recipients of concessions, permits or authorizations granted by
it;

details of
the information available to, or held by it, reduced in an electronic
form;

the
particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining
information, including the working hours of a library or reading room,
if maintained for public use;

the names,
designations and other particulars of the Public Information
Officers.[S.4(1)(b)]

PIOs are officers designated by the public authorities in all
administrative units or offices under it to provide information to the
citizens requesting for information under the Act. Any officer, whose
assistance has been sought by the PIO for the proper discharge of his or
her duties, shall render all assistance and for the purpose of
contraventions of the provisions of this Act, such other officer shall be
treated as a PIO.

PIO shall deal with
requests from persons seeking information and where the request cannot
be made in writing, to render reasonable assistance to the person to
reduce the same in writing.

If the information
requested for is held by or its subject matter is closely connected with
the function of another public authority, the PIO shall transfer, within
5 days, the request to that other public authority and inform the
applicant immediately.

PIO may seek the
assistance of any other officer for the proper discharge of his/her
duties.

PIO, on receipt of a
request, shall as expeditiously as possible, and in any case within 30
days of the receipt of the request, either provide the information on
payment of such fee as may be prescribed or reject the request for any
of the reasons specified in S.8 or S.9.

Where the information
requested for concerns the life or liberty of a person, the same shall
be provided within forty-eight hours of the receipt of the
request.

If the PIO fails to
give decision on the request within the period specified, he shall be
deemed to have refused the request.

Where a request has
been rejected, the PIO shall communicate to the requester - (i) the
reasons for such rejection, (ii) the period within which an appeal
against such rejection may be preferred, and (iii) the particulars of
the Appellate Authority.

PIO shall provide
information in the form in which it is sought unless it would
disproportionately divert the resources of the Public Authority or would
be detrimental to the safety or preservation of the record in
question.

If allowing partial
access, the PIO shall give a notice to the applicant, informing:

that only part of the record requested, after
severance of the record containing information which is exempt from
disclosure, is being provided;

the reasons for the decision, including any
findings on any material question of fact, referring to the material on
which those findings were based;

the name and designation of the person giving the
decision;

the details of the fees calculated by him or her
and the amount of fee which the applicant is required to deposit;
and

his or her rights with respect to review of the
decision regarding non-disclosure of part of the information, the amount
of fee charged or the form of access provided.

If information sought has been supplied by third party or is
treated as confidential by that third party, the PIO shall give a
written notice to the third party within 5 days from the receipt of the
request and take its representation into consideration.

Third party must be given a chance to make a representation
before the PIO within 10 days from the date of receipt of such
notice.